A Throwback to my Early Days - Part 1
Only people with me from the very beginning will remember this
Dear Friend and Community Member,
As the election fast approaches, I’ve been thinking about how to help you to be a high-information voter. While I have shared my views on the challenges facing public education in the past, I have decided to share out some of these views again. I am sending out two of my early emails from early 2024, as they are pertinent to the election of your school board seats more so today than they were when I sent them out originally. Our world is changing faster and faster, and AI is now impacting local businesses, individuals, and especially our youth. While this should be added to the list in my original email, I have not edited the below email at all, and it is 100% intact as originally presented. Some of the stats have changed, and we are certainly not #1 in science anymore. However, the relevance of the message has only increased since January of 2024. I hope you find value in this flashback, just keep in mind that there are more recent headlines and technologies out there that make the situation more urgent than ever. Enjoy!
January 27, 2024:
“Dear Friend and Community Member,
“There are a couple of perspectives which are prevalent within the community that have been on my mind. I’d like to share them with you as a parent and community member in hopes that we can have these important conversations with civility and love. No matter how good something is, improvement can always be made. And until we can establish a baseline or starting point, we can’t pick a path forward toward that improvement.
“I have spent much time considering the two perspectives I hear most. While, at first, they seem to be in competition with each other, I believe they are actually directly related to each other and serve to establish our baseline and our path forward.
“Our school is doing the best it has in many years. This is objectively true, no matter your personal experience or perspective, according to most widely accepted benchmarks of success that public schools strive to live up to (think state and federal requirements, test scores, financial stability, etc.). The school and many community members are very proud, and they should be: this improvement has garnered the attention of lawmakers in the capitol, because of the magnitude of change in such a short period of time! Cascade School is #1 in the state in science and in the top 10 districts for math, according to State measures. A short time ago, we were under State scrutiny due to our inability to perform as a school. This unbelievable progress shows that Cascade can perform at a level that nearly no other district can realistically imagine. A sincere thanks to every person who helped make that happen!
“Now that our school’s current position is established, I introduce perspective number one: that the school is doing great and all we need to do is “stay the course.” Few, if any, large changes remain to be implemented, and gradual, incremental, and measurable progress is what we should now strive for. The enormous progress within our school must be a sign of better things yet to come, and that our trajectory is established and our placement at the top of the pack is secured, barring any extreme failures at the top of the organization.
“The second perspective is not as glamorous, but it seems to be the most commonly held perspective in Cascade. Additionally, the second perspective provides the greatest opportunity to utilize the proven capabilities within the school that are responsible for the amazing achievements of late. The second perspective isn’t attributed to one dynamic or another, but is attributed to many different dynamics when they are viewed as a whole. To understand the second perspective, it requires us to zoom out and look at things from a higher level.
Nampa School District has lost around 2,000 students over the last ten years, while the population of Nampa nearly doubled since the year 2000, according to two different news articles (here and here) which reported on the closures. The second article states that this is not unique to Nampa, and is a trend being observed across America.
While anecdotal, I have heard tales from different perspectives regarding the Fruitland School District. A few years ago, the Treasure Valley Classical Academy opened its doors in Fruitland, which boasts a fully classical curriculum. A parent in Fruitland whose kids now attend TVCA has shared with me in great depth how much of an improvement he’s seen in his kids’ educations after they switched from the traditional public school system. In fact, he speculates that every kid enrolled in the traditional school now has their name on the waiting list to get into the classical academy. I heard a portion of the other side of the story while at the ISBA convention in November: the superintendent of the traditional public school shared in a seminar that ever since TVCA opened, she has had to field constant complaints and criticism about her school’s inferior curriculum, and the attitude of the public toward the traditional school has nose-dived. Meanwhile, TVCA has hit their growth milestones years ahead of schedule and are actively planning expansion now.
Nationally, homeschooling is the fastest growing form of education in America. Already on an upward trend, homeschooling skyrocketed thanks in large part to the measures taken by governments in response to covid-19. And almost all of the kids who began homeschooling during covid are still homeschooling today. Although the catalyst would reasonably merit removing kids from public school, it seems that nearly every family who took their kids out decided that homeschooling was superior to public schools long-term, for whatever reason.
Idaho does not keep statistics on how many families homeschool, so anyone interested in that data must extrapolate from various sources and/or use anecdotal information. According to the most recent census data, the number of youth ages 5 to 19 within Cascade city limits is 196 out of a total population of 1,005 (about 19.5%). The total population of our School District, according to Valley County, is 2,100. While there is no formula or set of assumptions that will be perfect, I will make a good faith attempt to illustrate the point I am trying to convey. By age 19 a young person should be out of high school, so let’s adjust the 19.5% of the population within city limits down to an ultra-conservative 13% and apply it to the entire population living within the district boundaries (including within city limits). 2100x.13=273 potential students in district boundaries. School enrollment is 210, leaving a conservatively estimated 63 students not enrolled in Cascade School. Regardless of whether or not you agree with my assumptions or math, nearly everyone in Cascade knows several families that homeschool their kids here. And the more people I meet, the more homeschooling families I meet that are not connected to other homeschooling groups. I estimate that I’ve personally met families that comprise 40 or 50 kids being homeschooled, and I don’t know a lot of people. No matter how you frame it, Cascade has a very large homeschooling population per capita. In fact, some of these families recently got together to create a “micro-school”.
Among Junior High and High School students in Cascade, over half earned a spot on the High Honor Roll last Thursday. High Honor Roll has traditionally been a way to spotlight the highest academic achievers – the best of the best. In Cascade, it appears that High Honor Roll is the new average. When everyone is special, no one is.
“A lot of factors play into the second perspective, but the summary is this: Parents have higher expectations than what public school currently offers. However, public schools in Idaho, like ours, have sufficient flexibility and empowerment to become a high-standards school. Our kids are showing us that one of the highest achievements offered is too easy to achieve. Our friends and community members are showing us that they believe our school is not the best education option for their kids. Idahoans are proving that they are convinced that public schools are inferior to all other options. Nationally, more and more parents are paying twice (and working twice as hard) to educate their children at home rather than let the public schools do it for them. Anyone who denies that public schools need to compete for student enrollment today risks being accused of deliberate ignorance.
“BUT – these two perspectives are not mutually exclusive. They can coexist, and even help each other improve. We have a high-performing administrative team and teaching staff that brought our school out of the bowels of complete failure to becoming a good school in the eyes of the State. We have parents who are participating in, if not providing, their kids’ education who help out with school activities. We have a diverse skillset among community members, and a community whose values are agreed upon loud and clear. If we, as a community, can agree that our school’s position has improved greatly, but that the environment, perception, and expectations around K-12 education have changed just as drastically over the same span of time, we are in a position to leverage all state and local resources to ensure our youth are getting the education that parents and society expects for them. And, based upon the new norm of High Honor Roll, our students are ready.”